W.Hyn Black mirror The episode “Be straight back”, went on the air in 2013, this was clearly a work of science fiction: painfully tormented by grief after the death of her husband, a woman named Marta orders a robotic copy, which serves as his real replacement that imitates his speech models and manners.
But, as in the case of great science fiction, reality often catches up. Over the past decade “Complaints” And Deep avatars They became commonplace, allowing the dead to communicate with the simulations of their dead loved ones. Now researchers are studying something closer to Black mirror Concept: The technology of virtual reality, which revives not only the image, voice or way of communicating the deceased, but also virtual modeling of their physical self.
Unlike most existing bots in grief, virtual reality creates the illusion of presence. Thus, even when someone consciously understands that the virtual environment around them is artificial, they often react to this, as if it is real. “If we play a game in virtual reality, and I suddenly throw a ball for you, you will try to avoid the ball, even if you know that this is not real,” explains Sylvia Pizzoli, a researcher who studies grief and virtual reality at the University of Pegaso in Italy.
This is his strength and his weakness. Virtual reality was successfully used to treat mental health, such as PTSR And anxiety By putting patients on triggers or fear the situation in a safe, simulated environment. Now some researchers believe that technology can also help treat Long -term sorrce disorderThe diagnosis that was applied to people whose grief strongly interferes with their daily functioning for at least a year. One type of therapy for this kind of grief is aimed at helping a person to develop a more healthy connection with an absent loved one in their imagination. The clinicians often try the “empty chair” technique, where patients talk to the deceased, imagining them, sitting in an empty chair.
How much strangers should really interfere with the process of sorrow?
But the technique of an empty chair can be difficult to practice, because people with a long grief disorder often experience a strong avoidance of the memory of the deceased, says Francesco Fanti Rovett, co -author Recent article On VR Grief technology. Based on most of the studies of grief, the article of Rometta suggests that virtual reality can improve the existing therapy of sorrow, to circumvent this resistance, requiring less the imagination of the patient. But Rette and his colleagues also warn that the technology should be used carefully and only in controlled clinical contexts. Someone in torment lovedWhat can lead to error, that a person is still alive.
Ravetta compares this with other types of imaginary relations: children's ties with imaginary friends. “While the child knows that the imaginary satellite is imaginary, this is largely adaptive,” he says. “When a child begins to believe that an imaginary companion is actually real, he can turn into non -adaptive behavior.”
In the same way, a person of the deceased must still realize that a person in front of him simulation– Something that the illusion of presence can make it difficult to achieve. In combination, these two effects can lead to the fact that the deceased man developed an “ambiguous attitude” to death. A person realizes that death occurred at a cognitive level, but still has an empty impulse to deny this.
“One of the main risks that I see is that the potential use of targeted people who already suffer from severe psychological and existential pain,” says Pizzali. Can VR therapy worsen the pain of this already vulnerable population? This is what she plans to study in the future. “If we give these people the opportunity to meet again [with] Beloved, ”she explains,“ maybe we are worried about the natural, painful process of grief. ”
This is a question in the center of all this: how many outsiders should interfere in the process of sorrow? Everyone grieves a little in the other way. Some experts believe that a long grief is not a disorder at all, but rather the medication of a normal and inevitable form of suffering.
A Black mirror The episode “Be right” warned of such dangers: at the end of the episode of March, concerned about the discrepancies between the replacement of the robot and the husband, whom she remembers, orders his copy to jump from the rock, finally realizing that his preservation will continue to distinguish the gap left by her husband, not serving him to fill him out.
More from Nautilus About grief and virtual ghosts:
“Why couldn't I overcome my brother's death“Everyone told me that my grief will decrease in a year. It turned out only worse. Is it wrong with me?
“Partran is a spellIn a work of art, holograms and memory they collide.
“You can die from a broken heart?“What happens to our bodies when the bonds of love are violated.
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Leading image: Alena Ivochkin / Shatterstok
